At the official commemoration event of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, held outside the House of Terror Museum in Budapest on Monday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that “If freedom is lost, if national independence is lost, we too are lost”.

If freedom is lost, if national independence is lost, we too are lost

The Prime Minister greeted all those who sense that Hungarians are a people of freedom, “a special nation of freedom”. He then stressed that, despite rain or biting wind, tear gas or mounted police charges, “we shall gather, because wherever we live in the world, today we want to remember”.

According to the Prime Minister, the Soviet regime pushed Hungarians into a space with no history, and “sought to destroy both our past and our culture”, but “The strongest weapon against the return of physical and mental terror is a national memory, and this is why we have come here”. In this he was referring to the House of Terror Museum, which, he reminded those present, was once the headquarters of the Arrow Cross Party, and then the centre of the terror committed by the communist party state.

In 2002, he said, “with a blade wall we sliced it out of time and space, we made it into a memorial and placed a museum here in the heart of Budapest, of Hungary and of Europe”. With this, he added, the world will always be reminded that the Hungarians’ desire for freedom cannot be suppressed. It was also placed there, Mr. Orbán said, to remind him and his compatriots that if freedom is lost, if national independence is lost, then the Hungarians themselves are lost. In this way, he said, it serves as a warning that “we are never given freedom for nothing: we must always fight for it”.

Photo: Gergely Botár

Whether the Austrians and their allies, the Russians, the Germans or the Soviets come, “we must always defend our own freedom: nobody else will do it for us”, the Prime Minister pointed out, noting that the Hungarians have become accustomed to the fact that “around here, ‘liberation’ signals the beginning of another occupation”.

But, he continued, “In 1956 the wonderful country we had always yearned for rose up out of the half-light of oppression”. He added that “The Revolution was a national revolution”.

It suddenly became clear that those working in factories were not members of the international proletariat, but Hungarian workers, “and we will remember this moment for as long as a single Hungarian is still alive on this Earth”, he explained.

Mr. Orbán also emphasised that “We not only remember, but we also do not forget. And that includes not forgetting those who stood against us”.

The Prime Minister also said that “although Westerners admired the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, they did not understand it. […] They did not understand why we fought against overwhelming odds that, according to human logic, we couldn’t hope to overcome. They did not understand that we were fighting because we insist on our own culture and way of life to the bitter end, and do not want to be absorbed into anyone else’s melting pot”.

“We want others to respect who and what we are”, he said, because the Hungarians have protected Europe’s borders and fought for their national independence for over a thousand years. “We are a brave, combative people which knows very well that those who are not respected are despised” he said, declaring that “This is why they still don’t understand us today in Brussels – for the same reason they didn’t understand us then”.

According to the Prime Minister, today we celebrate a day on which millions of Hungarians once again simultaneously realised that “although we may live different lives, we all belong to the same nation”.

“Péter Mansfeld, Mária Wittner, László Dózsa, János Szabó, Gergely Pongrácz, Imre Nagy, József Mindszenty: we look at them, but what we see is a nation”, he stated.

The Prime Minister observed that commemoration also helps us to face up to “the truth of our lives today”: the truth is that, some thirty years after communism, there still exists a world power that wants to shape the nations of Europe into a monochromatic and homogeneous mass. Like every cultured nation, he said, the Hungarians have always had their own vision of Hungary, but “the truth is that now, after thirty years, everything that we believe about Hungary and the way of Hungarian life is once again under threat”.

Photo: Gergely Botár

Mr. Orbán said that in his opinion, after Hungarians won their freedom in 1990, their history has again arrived at a new turning point.

“We wanted to believe that the old problems could never return”, and that the communists’ madcap dream of turning the Hungarians into “Homo sovieticus” could never reappear, the Prime Minister said, but now people are amazed to see that “the forces of globalism are pressing on our door and are working on turning us into Homo brusselius”.

Hungarians, he continued, also “wanted to believe that we would never again have to deal with political, economic and intellectual forces that seek to sever our national roots”, and that terror and violence could never again rear their ugly head in Europe.

Continuing, he said that:

“… this isn’t what happened, because Europe was blinded by its previous successes and, without even noticing, slipped into the background on the global stage. It dreamed of playing a global role, but today even its neighbours hardly care about it, and it is hardly capable of keeping order even at home.”

According to the Prime Minister, instead of recognising this, they have “launched campaigns of revenge” against those who warned them against the dangers of intellectual and spiritual self-immolation and of nihilism.

“People who believe Europe needs external borders that can be physically protected have been branded as close-minded”, he continued. “Those who believe immigration represents a danger to our culture have been branded as racists, and those who raise their voices in defence of Christianity have been branded as exclusionists”, he said.

“Those who have taken a stand in defence of the family have been branded as homophobic; those who believe Europe is an alliance of nations have been branded as Nazis; and those who have stepped off the Brussels economic policy path, that leads to a quagmire, have been branded as crackpots”, he added.

“Few have survived these campaigns of retribution”, he said, adding that arrogance has led Europe into intellectual, economic and political chaos.

According to Mr. Orbán, the people of Europe, including the Hungarians, have had enough of being irresistibly pressured into accepting globalism.

“This is why we wanted and still want the European Union – so that there is a guarantee and a vehicle with which the nations of Europe can protect their ideas of civilisation”, he stressed.

“This is why Europe has hit a brick wall”, the Prime Minister stated, adding that in his opinion the empire of financial speculation has taken Brussels and many Member States prisoner.

“In the twentieth century all the trouble was caused by military empires, but now, in the slipstream of globalisation, financial empires have risen up”, he said. He added that:

“They have no borders, but they have global media and they have bought tens of thousands of people. They have no solid structure, but they have an extensive network. They are quick, strong and brutal.”

Photo: Gergely Botár

Mr. Orbán said that it will be impossible to turn Europe in the right direction until Brussels regains its sovereignty.

The Prime Minister pointed out that this empire of financial speculation has saddled Europe with modern-day mass population movement, with millions of migrants, and with a new migrant invasion.

“They are the ones who developed a plan with which they want to make Europe a mixed continent”, he added.

According to the Prime Minister, Central Europeans are the only ones who are resisting.

“We have reached a point at which Central Europe is the last migrant-free zone in Europe”, he said, noting that this is because the struggle for Europe’s future is focused here.

According to Mr. Orbán, the Hungarians were the ones who “broke the ice of silence”, and who named the forces that want to sever Europe’s national roots.

“We brought them into the light, and to combat them we declared national – and then international – solidarity. We could do no other”, he said.

“Our world is not that of half-light and covert warfare: we can never win with that approach”, he said, adding that “In darkness, we are outnumbered by our adversaries”.

According to the Prime Minister, Hungarians only have a chance of defending their borders, stopping mass migration and preserving their national identity in “an open fight”, and through clear and direct speech.

“If we want a Hungarian Hungary and a European Europe, then we must speak about it openly”, he declared, “And it is not enough to speak: we must also fight – as we have always done when our freedom and independence were at stake”.

Mr. Orbán said that today all elections in Europe are crucial, “as the Austrian, German and Czech elections have been, and as the Italian and Hungarian elections next year will be”.

The Prime Minister said:

“It will now be decided whether the people of Europe take back control of their own national life from European bureaucrats who are intertwined with the economic elite. We must enact radical changes in every field: in politics, in the economy, in intellectual life, and above all in culture.”

“It will be decided now whether we succeed in regaining our old, wonderful Europe, that existed before multiculturalism”, he stressed.

“We want a Europe that is safe, just, civic, Christian and free”, the Prime Minister declared.

“Many people still think that this is impossible”, he said, “but people didn’t believe in the possibility of change prior to 1956, 1988 or 2010 either”.

Mr. Orbán asked his audience:

“On the morning of 23 October 1956, how many people sitting on the tram on the way to work would have thought that come the evening all that would remain of the statue of Stalin would be his boots? How many people believed that, if needed, even the children would take up arms?”

Photo: Gergely Botár

He continued by asking how many people in 1988 believed that within a year communism would be brought to its knees, and that Hungarians would order the Soviet troops out of the country. And prior to 2010, he asked, “how many people believed that we would soon have a new constitution based on national foundations, Christian in culture, and capable of protecting our families?”

“They said that it was impossible to send the International Monetary Fund home, that it was impossible to settle accounts with the banks, that it was impossible to tax the multinationals, and that it was impossible to cut public utility bills”, Mr. Orbán said. “They said it was impossible to provide work to everyone, that it was impossible to resist mass migration, and that it was impossible to stop the migrant invasion with a fence on our borders ”, he declared.

“Not once could I tell you that we would definitely succeed. There are no such guarantees in life”, he noted. “But Viktor Orbán was certain of one thing: if we do not try, then we will definitely not succeed”, he said, adding that “There is always some chance”.

“In 1956 we salvaged the nation’s honour. In 1990 we regained our freedom. And in 2010 we stepped onto the road of national unification. Nobody can tell us that something is impossible”, he said.

The Prime Minister said that “We know that mass migration must be stopped, that globalisation can be kept in check, that Brussels can be restrained, that the plan of a financial speculator can be torpedoed, and that a straightjacket can be forced onto the insane idea of a United States of Europe”.

“All this requires is for us in Central Europe – the Poles, the Czechs, the Slovakians and the Hungarians – to join forces”, he added.

“The stakes are high, and we cannot take anything for granted”, Mr. Orbán continued, adding that “The power we have today must not lead us into complacency or inactivity. We must never underestimate the power of the dark side”.

Mr. Orbán said his party, Fidesz, was the favourite to win next year’s elections.

He stated that his party has yet to earn victory and has yet to fight to achieve it, because that will require everyone; and so it will be preparing for the elections in the coming months. “In March we will start anew, and then in April we will be victorious”, he declared.